Malltown Read online

  “No-no…” Peggy said, waving her hand. “I’ve promised a friend I’d meet for breakfast.” Not exactly true, but almost. She did intend to go out for breakfast afterward.

  Petunia-Glass stared at her. “You sure?”

  “Yes, thank you,” Peggy said.

  “Not even a snack to get over the hump?”

  “No, thank you.”

  Petunia-Glass turned to the robot. “Two snacks.” The robot wheeled out. Petunia-Glass continued. “I’m so upset! So upset! Here’s what happened.” She sat in a chair. “I was inside my VR pod and had left the sheep in my main pod because I was visiting a friend who was bringing a llama and I didn’t want them interacting.”

  The robot returned with two club sandwiches.

  “The main door to Malltown was locked,” Petunia-Glass gestured to the door Peggy had entered, which now stood sealed. After placing a sandwich beside Petunia-Glass, the robot placed a club sandwich on a table beside Peggy. Peggy looked up and smiled her thanks at her.

  Petunia-Glass picked up a potato chip. “The door to the fields had its forcefield up and the outer camera on as usual. I had turned on my homepod’s interior camera, and kept up a visual of the sheep while I was in the VR pod, to keep an eye on her.” Petunia-Glass twisted around. “Anything to drink!” Petunia-Glass had turned to the robot. The robot wheeled out. “My friend, Glorianna, was going on about this and that, and I drifted to watching the sheep on the feed of my homepod camera, and the sheep is standing in the room, just here,” she shows, pointing to the center of the room with the potato chip. “The sheep isn’t doing anything. Then I see her back dip, and she walks over to the table, gets under it, and turns around to face where she had stood!” Petunia-Glass put the potato chip back on the tray. “This alarmed me so much I excused myself, left the VR pod and came out to find the sheep under the table.” She paused. “And that was it.” She waited, eyebrows up.

  Peggy hesitated. “That’s it?”

  Petunia-Glass exclaimed, “Someone came into the room, wearing something to make them invisible, and tried to kidnap the sheep! But when the sheep avoided capture, and I came out of the VR pod as quickly as I did, they ran away. Out the field door.” Petunia-Glass waited, her eyes on Peggy.

  Peggy looked over at the sealed field door. Each homepod was equipped with a doorway that led to the fields surrounding Malltown. These doors could be sealed with a door similar to the homepod’s main door, only each field door had to be made of steel, and were sealed during storms. But on temperate days such as this one, the field door was usually left open by the occupant. A forcefield in place protected the doorway from insect intrusion and a sensor alerted the home occupant if a guest entered through that doorway. Most people left their field door open on a semipermanent basis, Malltown itself automatically shuttering field doors in the case of storms.

  The robot returned with two beverages. Lime Rickeys, caffeinated. The green, clear liquid around ice cubes, in tall glasses dappled with condensation. She placed them and departed.

  “It’s possible,” Peggy began, “adaptable camouflage has been around for years. A suit that bends light, hides heat from sensors. But they’re not perfect. What’s so special about the sheep?”

  “She’s got extra fine wool for knitting, very little need for washing and skirting. She’s very clean. And here, smell.” Petunia-Glass grabbed a hank from a basket, stood and walked up to Peggy, who also stood.

  Peggy sniffed. “Mmmm… Mango,” Peggy said.

  Petunia-Glass said, “There’s no sheep smell. She’s been modified to smell like a mango. And she’s small, portable, pleasant disposition, not too active. The miniaturized wool-producing animals are rare, they don’t breed well, and after the GMO dustup they don’t make more. So she’s valuable to those who knit.”

  So the knitting circle would be a culprit, but then whoever came to the knitting circle with silky, mango-smelling wool would immediately alert Petunia-Glass. So it wasn’t a very practical thing to steal unless one planned to sell it in the city. There was a market for just about everything in the city. “How long have you had the sheep?”

  “About six months,” Petunia-Glass explained. “My daughter in the city bought it for me, but I could have saved up points for it.” Petunia-Glass turned to her wall screen, spoke about buying GM sheep and a list rose up.

  Peggy stood, facing the list on the wall, reading. “—So it’s available. If someone wanted a sheep they could have found one. Look, here’s one in strawberry, another in grapefruit. But no Mango? Is that a big deal?”

  “I don’t know. Let me look it up,” said Petuina-Glass, “No, here’s one in Mango.”

  Peggy studied the list scrolling up the white wall. “So they’re not a rare item, and not too expensive.” It’s a lot of points for a Malltowner, Peggy thought. But not impossible. “Can I borrow the camera output, for say, two weeks with an automatic self destruct?”

  “I’ll get you all three outputs. Two doors and interior.”

  “Good, I’d appreciate it,” said Peggy.

  Petunia-Glass reached deep into her coveralls and took out a Senior-Sensor device. Similar to Peggy’s Rover, but suited to seniors and not, as far as Peggy knew, designed for Factors in any capacity (unless the senior was a Factor). Petunia-Glass spoke commands, tapped a few times. “Here, let me bump you.”

  Peggy took out her Factor Grippy Rover and she bumped Petunia-Glass’ Senior-Sensor. “I’ll have a look at the footage, check the logs on the infrasuit and get back to you,” Peggy said, looking down at her Rover, manually sliding the new material into a folder as she headed for the door.

  “Wait. You’ve got to take her,” said Petunia-Glass.

  Peggy turned, “Hm?”

  “55,555,” said Petunia-Glass. “Wait a minute. Let me spray you, then you can have her.” Petunia-Glass reached into her coveralls and withdrew a small cylinder. “It’s an atomizer. It came with the sheep. Hold still, it only takes a little and it doesn’t wash off.”

  Peggy stepped back. She held up her hands, “If you could explain.”

  Petunia-Glass, mouth firmly set, stepped forward and, holding the cylinder forward, pressed her thumb down. A mist fanned out, hitting Peggy’s hands. “There,” said Petunia. “I’ve hid her in the VR cylinder for safety, but I can’t keep her there, it would be inhumane.” She went around back, presumably to her VR pod. Peggy heard a door whoosh. A faint bleat. A creature appeared around the curve of the interior pod. Peggy stared down at it staring up at her. A foot high, the wool on its torso cut short, large ears. It bleated and stepped forward, its eyes on Peggy.

  “There we are,” said Petunia-Glass, coming back into the room, sounding more relaxed. The sheep took another step toward Peggy and Petunia-Glass smiled. A thin smile, as she looked down at the sheep. “The spray is genetically modified to specifically attract her and no other barnyard animal, not even another sheep. Isn’t it remarkable?” She exhaled. “Now she’ll follow you anywhere.”

  “I don’t think this is a good idea,” said Peggy, “For one thing, I’ve never had a pet. I don’t know what to feed her. The culprit who tried to steal her may never come back—” If a culprit existed.

  “Nonsense,” said Petunia-Glass. “Keep the sheep, until the culprit is found. You know, like they used to do in the old days, witness protection. Her name is 55,555 and she’ll eat anything you put in front of her. Mind anything you value that a sheep might consider edible.”

  Peggy wondered if she wasn’t just trying to get rid of the sheep.

  END OF CHAPTER TWO

  Chapter 3

  Peggy’s stomach growled. She hadn’t eaten any of the club sandwich, or the drink. She regretted not having a sip of the Lime Rickey.

  55,555 followed Peggy as she walked across to the nearby bimpercars. 55,555 waited while Peggy strapped in. Looking down at the awaiting sheep, Peggy had a flash of calling out her destination, her bimpercar shunting out of line and whooshing down Malltown. T
he sheep growing smaller and smaller in the distance.

  “Come here,” she said and the sheep didn’t move. Peggy leaned down and, with trepidation, attempted to grip the sheep. Peggy’s hands went around the sheep’s middle. The sheep’s eyes bulged, but it did not try to escape. A good sign, Peggy thought, so she gripped harder around the middle and lifted. The sheep’s legs splayed, its eyes vacant, and Peggy lifted 55,555 onto her lap. “There we go,” she said. The sheep stood on her lap. “Roxy’s kiosk,” said Peggy and the bimpercar shunted.

  The bimpercar whisked forward. 55,555 leaned into Peggy, her hooves digging into her legs.

  The bimpercar stopped. Peggy placed 55,555 on the ground and unstrapped. Peggy stepped off the bimpercar. The bimpercar automatically shunted back into line, its fellows easing aside for it to reenter. 55,555 remained where Peggy had set her down.

  Across from Peggy, past the long, empty Left Corridor down Malltown, a homepod door opened. Peggy saw the occupant moving around the homepod’s interior. Two doors down and one up, a second homepod opened its door into Malltown. The occupant not in sight from Peggy’s angle. In the distance a third homepod opened its door and a woman in beige coveralls walked across the mainway, stepped past the bimpercars who, sensing her, moved aside, and entered into the central area of kiosks.

  Peggy turned toward the kiosks. Having arrived traveling northward, Peggy already stood inside the track, and had no need to step past the bimpercars.

  In front of Peggy, in the center of Malltown, the kiosks lay in slightly messy rows. Mostly shuttered, at this—Peggy checked her watch—6:40 AM hour, but soon enough, say in about half an hour, 1/4 of Malltown’s kiosks would open. An hour later, a further 1/4 kiosks would open—and so on. Every hour of the day brought out Factors and Hobbyists. Peggy listened to the rattle of a recycled aluminum shutter being lifted up. Peggy inhaled and caught the faint scent of pea-protein bacon and eggs. She waded past the back of a shuttered Components kiosk and followed the sound of sizzling.

  Roxy’s kiosk glowed in a blue-white LED aura, from its ceiling fixtures. Roxy stood behind a counter two kiosks long, with four old fashioned diner booths around the side. Franny 2-9 Robot stood at the electric griller. Franny 2-9 Robot had her arm extended. As Peggy approached, Franny, carefully gripping a spatula in her flexible fingers, carefully turned a pea-protein egg on the grill.

  Around the side, two of the back booths sat occupied. The woman furthest back ate a breakfast. The woman second furthest back, head down, studied the table’s menu shadow. A young woman Peggy had never seen at Roxy’s before stood in front of the woman reading the menu. The young woman wore a short black dress with an old fashioned apron. She held her College-Senior Sensor in her hand.

  Roxy smiled as Peggy approached. “Good morning Peggy,” she said. Roxy had unzipped her beige coveralls to the waist. She had clipped a buckle to the coverall’s waist, enabling the arms and torso of her coveralls to hang from her hips while she retained a cooler white tank top about her person.

  “Morning.” Peggy sat on a stool. The barstool had a plush red circular top and a single well-polished metal leg with a circular foot rest. Peggy looked down at the floor. 55,555 stood beside the wide metal cylinder of her stool.

  “The usual?” asked Roxy.

  Peggy nodded.

  “Peggy breakfast,” Roxy said, in a regular tone of voice.

  “Peggy breakfast,” Peggy heard faintly. Franny 2-9 Robot had spoken to herself aloud, at the grill.

  Roxy produced an off white ceramic mug with a blue border around the lip. Also from under the counter, Roxy took out a coffee silo and poured a portion of the silo’s contents into the mug. The steam lifted out of the mug, sending up the rich aroma of black coffee substitute.

  From within the breakfast kiosk, Peggy watched the college woman. Peggy tilted her head at the kid. “Who’s the youngster? Haven’t seen her around before.”

  “That’s Kate.” Roxy leaned on the counter. “She came in yesterday and asked if she could make herself a task.”

  Peggy watched Kate eyeing Franny 2-9. The breakfast robot’s three orbed, white shape was identical to Peggy’s new robot.

  Franny 2-9 had her spatula out. She inserted carefully, turning a square of hash on the grill. Carefully, she pressed down on the hash with the spatula.

  Kate leaned against an empty booth, tapping her fingernails on the booth-back.

  Franny 2-9 Robot carefully plated the hash and the eggs and grabbed a piece of popped toast out of the air. Franny 2-9 turned from the griller and wheeled across the stall.

  Kate straightened and walked to the passing robot. She put out a hand, halt, and gripped the plate. She tugged, once, twice, the robot’s arm resisting. Kate’s mouth tightened, and she tugged. The plate came away. Kate’s mouth softened and she turned, handing the plate to the waiting customer who held out her Malltown Rover for a bump. Kate took out her device and got the bump. She returned her College-Senior Sensor to her apron.

  Roxy turned back, “She’s been getting about thirty points per bump.”

  “Not bad,” said Peggy. “What’s the conversion rate these days?”

  “Two hundred.”

  Peggy whistled.

  “She’ll make it. She’s determined.”

  A new customer slid into a booth. Peggy watched Kate step over to her, holding her College-Senior Sensor.

  “What brings you out this early? On a Burble?”

  Peggy lifted her coffee mug. “Yes. I received a call regarding a Burble.”

  “Bad?”

  “Not too,” said Peggy. The coffee substitute went down smooth. Peggy was a Grippy, a type of Factor that took care of Burbles: minor complaints, arguments, and crime—although murder was virtually unknown within Malltown. Theft was rare. Break-ins into homepods considered virtually a myth. There was the occasional theft of city goods left unattended in public, but again, very rare, because everyone could get everything, more or less. As a Grippy Factor of Sector 4, Peggy received a call when an incident had occurred that required her immediate attention, and she went to see what the problem was.

  “What is it this time?” asked Roxy. Like Peggy, Roxy had chosen to perform a task, long term, and could be considered a Factor. Everyone in Sector 4 relied on Roxy and a few others like her for varied experience outside VR.

  “Attempted theft. From a homepod.”

  Roxy’s eyebrows lifted. “Whose homepod?”

  “Petunia-Glass.”

  “Senior?”

  Peggy nodded. She lifted her coffee.

  “She’s a hobbyist, right? Knitting?”

  Peggy nodded again. “Petunia-Glass is afraid someone is trying to kidnap her genetically modified pet sheep.” Peggy drank her coffee and placed it down on the counter. “Petunia-Glass claims someone walked into her homepod through the open field door, while she was inside her VR cylinder, upset her GM sheep, and left before she entered the room. But the cameras only picked up a slight movement of the sheep’s back, and the sheep looks fine.”

  “She had her homepod inside camera on?”

  “She’d been concerned for the sheep,” said Peggy. “She claims the sheep’s having hid under a table was evidence that someone had come in and tried to hurt it.”

  Roxy took a glass and began to wipe it dry. “What’s the sheep like?”

  “The sheep’s name is 55,555. The sheep is the size of a toy dog. The sheep is with me, here, under my seat.”

  Roxy leaned forward across the counter and looked down.

  55,555 looked up at Roxy.

  “Do I smell mango?” asked Roxy.

  “That’s 55,555’s coat growing in.”

  “Looks very soft,” said Roxy, looking over the counter.

  “Exactly. Petunia-Glass keeps the one sheep to use the unusually fine wool for knitting.”

  “But why do you have it?”

  “She asked me to keep the sheep for her. Until the culprit is found. You know, like they used to d
o in the old days, witness protection.”

  “You sure she’s not trying to get rid of it?”

  “That’s what I thought.”

  Past Roxy, who leaned over the counter to look at 55,555, Franny 2-9 Robot held an old fashioned ceramic plate loaded with breakfast matter. She wheeled quickly forward. Faster, it appeared to Peggy, than she had previously. Kate stepped in front of Franny 2-9. Franny 2-9 veered and Kate compensated, her hand up, palm out, halt. Kate tugged twice and took the plate.

  Franny 2-9 turned back to her electric grill.

  As Kate arrived with Peggy’s hash and eggs, Roxy straightened and Kate placed the breakfast plate in front of Peggy. The grease glistened over the fried eggs. The smell and sight of the crisp hash browns made Peggy’s stomach growl. Peggy took her Factor Grippy Rover from out of her coveralls and gave Kate’s College-Senior Sensor a bump. Fifty credits exchanged devices. Kate looked at her screen. She smiled. “Thanks.”

  Anyone from the Towns, they got a free apartment in the city for two years and each apartment came with a food box and a clothing recycler. So it was spending money Kate was after. So she could have a good time. Or start a business. Or a band. Frequently, if a youngster was thinking about going to the city, she would make up a job for herself. Like this one. A waitress in training.

  “Good luck,” said Peggy.

  Kate nodded. She headed back to the booths.

  Peggy placed her Grippy Rover on the counter top. She lifted her fork and opened an egg yolk on its tongs, spreading the yellow yolk into the hash browns, thinking about Petunia-Glass. “It’s probably nothing, very unlikely someone would use her field door to enter her homepod. And if they did, they’re not on the cameras. Here,” Peggy took a forkful of hash and eggs with one hand, and with her other hand pulled the old fashioned folder icon down and open. “She gave me her camera footage.”

  Roxy nodded.

  “I haven’t had a look at it yet.” Peggy opened the file.